Nigeria Hit By Two Mass Abductions of Women and Children
Nigeria has seen a spate of kidnappings in recent days with an estimated 200 mostly women taken from one state and more than 280 school children taken from another.
The latest abduction from Kaduna State in northern Nigeria saw students, some as young as eight years old taken by gunmen on motorcycles.
It comes days after dozens of women, boys and girls living in a displaced camp in northeast Nigeria were feared to have been abducted by Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram.
Reports suggest that up to 200 people could have been taken by insurgents from Gamboru Ngala, a market town in Borno State, when they were going to collect firewood.
Jabez Musa*, a Nigerian lawyer, said: “This is a rise in kidnappings. Abductions have been taking place one here another there, but this is quite different now. Our government has not reacted yet. We are waiting to hear from them to see what they can do.”
Open Doors spokesperson Jo Newhouse* said: “We are horrified at these latest mass abductions of mostly women and children in Nigeria and call for their immediate release.
“For many of us this will be a reminder of when 276 mostly Christian female students aged from 16 to 18 were kidnapped by the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram from their secondary school in Chibok – which was also from Borno State – in in April 2014.
“But these are not isolated abductions. Attacks and kidnappings – particularly in the North of Nigeria – have seriously worsened over the last decade. Christians are among those who are especially targeted.
“The Nigerian Government is failing to discharge its duty to protect its citizens from violence and attacks.
“Arms proliferation, impunity and Government inaction has allowed the expansion of Boko Haram and increasing violence in the north of Nigeria, where attacks by armed bandits on villages and schools are becoming endemic.”
According to Open Doors research, more than 37,500 people are estimated to have been killed since Boko Haram’s insurgency started in 2011.
Nigeria is ranked at number six on Open Doors’ World Watch List, where life for Christians is the most dangerous.
CEO of Open Doors UK and Ireland, Henrietta Blyth, said:
We are urgently calling on the Nigerian President to liberate those abducted in these mass abductions – one on children and another on a group of people who are already traumatised and displaced because of insecurity.
Boko Haram is notorious for targeting Christians, abducting and killing men and abducting, raping and forcibly marrying women and girls.
We also urge the Nigerian government to work to get the hostages already held by Boko Haram liberated – including young Christian girls such as Leah Sharibu and the Chibok girls who are still held captive.
More than 100 of the Chibok girls remain in captivity as of today. The families of the hostages hardly ever receive updates on the government’s efforts to release them.
